One of the more hot-button issues in media this summer has been CNN’s hiring of former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a regular contributor despite the fact that he is still receiving severance payments from the campaign. On “The Late Show” Wednesday night, host Stephen Colbert pressed CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the issue.

“So y’all are paying him, and Trump is paying him, but he’s on your show doing analysis for a man he still gets cash from,” Colbert prompted.

Colbert also asked the question most people are probably wondering: What the hell is a “campaign surrogate” anyway? “The candidate can’t be everywhere, so they have people out there speaking for them,” Cooper said.

As for the candidate himself, the host of “Anderson Cooper 360” opined a little on the supposed “pivot” Trump appears to be making in recent speeches. “I think the alleged outreach to African-American voters is a really interesting thing,” Cooper said. “I mean, he’s doing it in front of overwhelmingly white audiences; he’s yet to actually go to an African-American church.”

As for Colbert’s feelings on the candidate, the “Late Show” host got off a good riff likening Trump to a very particular kind of gift: “There’s a little bit, it seems, of ‘Elect me, see what happens! I’m a present — Christmas morning is Election Day. Open me up: Maybe I’m full of toys, maybe I’m full of turds. Let’s find out. Don’t shake me.'”

On an episode of "Late Night With Stephen Colbert," the host revealed that he had been prohibited from using his conservative, clueless TV show persona from "The Colbert Report" elsewhere. Instead, Colbert skirted around the issue by going into character under the guise of being Colbert's cousin. He also riffed off of his popular sketch "The Word" by recreating it with the name "The Werd."

NBC attempted to prohibit David Letterman from taking popular sketches like "Top 10 Lists" over to his CBS show because they were the "intellectual property" of NBC. Letterman still managed to keep the sketch on the "Late Show" by renaming it "The Late Show Top 10" by and adding a different intro soundtrack. He eventually went back to referring it as "Top 10" without any problems.

"Stupid Pet Tricks" was another one of the most popular sketches on "Late Night" that NBC tried to claim ownership of. As the name would imply, pets would come on stage and perform strange tricks for the audience.

Though NBC included the sketch in its list of "intellectual property" that Letterman could not take over to CBS, the host still continued to keep it alive on the "Late Show," albeit at a lower frequency. A spinoff, "Stupid Human Tricks," was also created.

Another popular staple on "Late Night with David Letterman," Larry "Bud" Melman was considered property of NBC and Letterman was barred from using him on the "Late Show."

What Letterman and his team did instead was rename Larry "Bud" Melman to Calvert DeForest -- the actor's real name -- and have him essentially play the exact same character.

A recurring character on "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien", Triumph the Comic Insult Dog, almost didn't make it over to TBS due to the same "intellectual property" woes. The puppet, who was voiced by Robert Smigel, would frequently appear to insult guests with a cigar in its mouth. Triumph eventually managed to find his way onto "Conan" without too much drama.

Craig Kilborn, the host of the "Daily Show" from 1996-98, created a sketch called "Five Questions" that involved him asking celebrity guests a set of obscure and/or subjective questions. But when Kilborn left for CBS' "Late Late Show" in 1998, he claimed the sketch as his own intellectual property and brought it over to CBS. Comedy Central did not fight back against this and the sketch did not reappear in full again on "The Daily Show."

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David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and now Stephen Colbert have all had their old networks try to stop them from bringing over popular sketches and characters back to life

On an episode of "Late Night With Stephen Colbert," the host revealed that he had been prohibited from using his conservative, clueless TV show persona from "The Colbert Report" elsewhere. Instead, Colbert skirted around the issue by going into character under the guise of being Colbert's cousin. He also riffed off of his popular sketch "The Word" by recreating it with the name "The Werd."